Editorial: Helping Hawthorne

Friday

Dec 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The problems at Hawthorne High School and in the city of Hawthorne are deep-seated and deserve countywide attention.

The Alachua County school district deserves credit for rising graduation rates at six of its seven high schools, but the rate at the seventh school is an absolute disgrace.The district's overall graduation rate of 72.6 needs improvement, but individual rates at the six schools are at least headed in the right direction. Hawthorne High School, by contrast, reported a graduation rate of 50 percent — down from 54 percent last year.The state Department of Education this month released the figures along with an F grade for the Hawthorne school. It was the only high school with an F grade in the county and one of only eight F grades in the state.The department has been working with Hawthorne's teachers since the start of the year. A program that aims to boost graduation rates for at-risk students, Check & Connect, has been in place for about a year and a district official told The Sun it will take longer to show results.But the problems in Hawthorne the school and Hawthorne the city are deep-seated and deserve countywide attention. More than 75 percent of the school's students receive free or reduced-priced lunches, indicating widespread poverty.The Tampa Bay Times used Hawthorne as an example of economic despair in a story earlier this month about Gov. Rick Scott's record on jobs. A Georgia-Pacific plywood plant that had been the city's main employer for nearly three decades closed in 2011, putting 400 employees out of work.Mill workers were forced to move to lower-paying jobs. The story also showed how the plant's closing had a ripple effect on businesses from a Hawthorne hardware store that lost half its business to a local barbecue restaurant that laid off half its waitresses.It's no mystery then why the Plum Creek Timber Company's development plan has stirred optimism in Hawthorne. A plan for advanced manufacturing in a massive development between the city and Gainesville raises the prospect of good-paying jobs in close proximity.Santa Fe College next year is starting continuing education and computer classes in Hawthorne in part to pave the way for potential job-training programs. But the college and other groups in the community can't hang all their hopes on the development, given that the company still must show it won't cause significant environmental harm before winning approval.Even if its does, it could take decades before the thousands of promised jobs are created. There needs to be a better plan of how to help Hawthorne in the meantime.Improving its high school is job one. A school that graduates just half its students is a recipe for residents who have a hard time competing for quality jobs that will help bring them and the community out of poverty.